FOCUS 41
‘MORE AND MORE, so it seems to me, light is the beautifier of the building,’ American architect Frank Lloyd Wright once observed. Lighting, both natural and artificial, plays an intrinsic role in architecture and design, well beyond the functional role of making a space visible or enabling people to perform a task. When it comes to guidance and standards in lighting – and there is an extensive range, published by the Society of Light and Lighting (SLL), the BSI and others – there is invariably a focus on targets and design parameters to ensure functional lighting requirements are met, and that lighting installations are safe and fit-for-purpose. One of the drivers for this is that, depending on the individual project, the role of designing the lighting in the built environment can fall on a wide range of different practitioners, not necessarily lighting specialists.
Below To adopt Jeff Shaw’s words, ‘lighting, both natural and artificial, plays an intrinsic role in architecture’ in the case of the Sanxingdui Museum New Hall, Guanghan, Sichuan (lighting by Puri Lighting Design)
But lighting, in the overall context of design, may be about improving the quality of a space or changing its use in a renovation or taking a new space and using light to make it comfortable, inviting, sustainable, all while supporting its function. Tis goes well beyond the meeting of a given lux level on a specified surface based on a range of assumptions. In other words, it is crucial to look beyond simple compliance. An office lit to a blanket uniform 500 lux on the working plane can lack visual interest, can be uncomfortable, and is wasting energy. Or lighting the concourse of a transport hub to a strict
uniformity target, with no consideration of how the other surfaces in the space appear, is likely to create an unwelcoming environment that can be confusing to navigate and that may even feel unsafe.
Lighting standards do provide a framework to set design targets for a lighting scheme and are generally viewed as providing mandatory targets (in some cases they are a legal requirement, such as for emergency lighting). However, delivering a scheme focused only on compliance to these targets does not necessarily deliver a good design.
Traditionally, guidance such as the
SLL’s series of lighting guides, also tends to focus on specific aspects of lighting design or building types, in many cases touching on design techniques and approaches, as well as setting out technical targets and design considerations, and other relevant requirements.
So an upcoming lighting guide is a departure on both these counts. For the first time an SLL guide – Lighting Guide (LG) 23 – will focus on the topic of creative architectural lighting rather than a specific aspect of lighting. It addresses the overall architectural lighting design process, giving guidance on approaches to creative design and delivery, appropriate to any lighting design project. It emphasises that compliance should not be confused with good design.
Opinion Jeff Shaw, Arup
PHOTO: ARCH-EXIST PHOTOGRAPHY
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